The Ville

Release Date: June 29 2012

Publisher: Zynga

Developer: Zynga

Genre: Social Life Simulation

Sponsor:

The Ville is a social game developed by Zynga, best known as the maker of FarmVille and CastleVille. The game lets players build their house, invite their friends to have a party, hang out, enjoy dancing and simulate the way people are living in the dreams.

The game is described by multiple resources as a new “Sims” title, which bears a resemblance to EA’s The Sims Social, which enjoys a staggering number of daily active users, roughly – 2,800,000.

Overview:

In the beginning, players will be assigned a small room where they take part in a series of events and get some prizes and rewards that can be used to buy some virtual items for further decoration and expansion of their house.

On the surface, the Ville does not target itself as a innovative game. Instead, most of people claim the Ville is a pure copycat of The Sims Social since the ingame UI and experience are surprisingly the same as The Sims Social’s.

According to the Press release, The Ville features a Levelup mechanism where when players gain a new level-up, they could acquire some new objects for building relationships and unlocking new interactions.

In The Ville, if players are using their real avatar, they will be seamlessly connected with the game. Apart from the basic interaction, there will be a system that encourages players to craft decorations and items, either to cook food or build their house.

Review:

Building, visiting, helping, and interacting. That’s all in The Ville. That is the socializing approach most of the social games on Facebook have taken. Fortunately, the Ville has gone much further than that.

Playable character classes boast different hobbies and advantages. The Partier, for example, loves parties and gains more happiness when interacting with friends or doing something with them. Others may receive more money after completing chores, steal money from neighbors while chatting, or even become happy after crafting stuffs.

Starting from a bare land, you are going to click several times to build an empty house, furnish it, expand it, and tend the house. And since you will be a freelancer, almost all your life revolves around the house. You can purchase flowers, couch, TV, printer, bed, dresser, food, and others from the store and put them in the house. Those items offer coins, happiness, or even energy if you use them.

Almost every item in your residence has practical use. You are allowed to take a shower, cook food, eat food from the fridge, sit on the chair, rummage through the dresser, check the mail box for letters, and even make out on the couch! Some items allow for multiple choices. For instance, you can watch TV with neighbors or check news on TV by yourself. You can also choose to take a big bite or a tiny bite off the big pizza.

Yeah, coins and happiness matter in the Ville. Coins are used to purchase things from the shop to fulfill tasks and increase your home value while the happiness is the key to sending your character to work. You can increase your money and happiness in many ways: Empty the garbage can, feed birds, jump on the trampoline, juggle fruits, mow the weed, water the bush, wash your hands, and you will earn money; call over friends, gossip with them, tell jokes, watch TV and share food, and your character would be very happy to work. There are also times when you could obtain energy after using an item. In most cases, you may get coins after napping in the bed or, you know, using the toilet; but sometimes when your energy is low, you can obtain one or two energy points after doing the same thing.

Click a neighbor and choose what to do with him or her. Tell jokes? Shake hands? Gossip? Or just say good bye and call new friends over. The more you interact with a neighbor, the closer you two will be. You may even develop a romantic relationship with someone.

Coins, energy and happiness can all cause trouble for you. The coins you collect around the house except from jobs are always in small amounts while the items you purchase are at high prices. The jobs, on the other hand, consume large number of happiness and therefore you have to interact with your friends and eat food all the time. And the collections and interactions cost energy. That means you may probably be short of coins, energy and happiness all the time.

But it’s difficult to resent this game. Besides all the funny things the protagonist performs around the house, the visiting neighbors are a delight too. It is so funny to see them looking into the mirror to admire their own beauty. And to my great surprise, my character has got five sets of clothes by default: formal and casual outfits, active clothes, swim suits, and even pajamas.

Anyway, the Ville makes in-game socializing an entertaining experience but clearly it is for adults only.

1066330 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.dotmmo.com%2Fthe-ville-10663.htmlThe+Ville2012-06-27+03%3A09%3A10Sara+Lauhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.dotmmo.com%2F%3Fp%3D10663 on The Ville

How can you get rid of a random person who now lives in your Ville home. I have tried clicking on him an it doesnt offer goodbye, go home, break up, nothing that let me kick him to the curb….HELP…I liked living alone…lol..he is a pain.!!